A faint, eerie black light gleamed from within the hollow eye sockets of the skull.
As if penetrating countless barriers, it seemed to be gazing right back at Sacred Embryo Li Fan.
Yet Li Fan felt neither chill nor fear; instead, he sensed a touch of warmth and intimacy.
It was as though... he had known the owner of this skull once before.
"Strange. This feeling..."
The sacred embryo gazed at the skull for a long time without moving.
Unlike the other exhibits in the Museum of Divine Archives, there was no detailed explanation accompanying this skull.
It bore only an identification: the skull of the first cultivator infected with the immortal-mortal miasma.
And precisely because the cultivator had been infected with the immortal-mortal miasma while alive, it appeared no different from the skeletal remains left behind by an ordinary mortal.
Compared to the lustrous, gleaming white bones left behind when powerful cultivators perished, the contrast was obvious at a glance.
According to the docent, perhaps no one other than the curator of the museum knew why it had been placed at the very center.
Yet the mere fact that it was displayed at the dead center of the Museum of Divine Archives was proof enough of its value.
Be it practical worth or commemorative significance.
From the faint ripples of emotion sensed from his true self, the sacred embryo also knew that this skull was exceptionally important to him as well.
Evidently, however, now was not the time to take it.
Taking one last, deep look at the skull, Sacred Embryo Li Fan prepared to leave, but then an idea struck him.
Turning back once more, he carefully examined the skull from every angle, committing its exact features to memory.
*Perhaps the cultivator's original appearance can be reconstructed from the shape of the skull.*
It was precisely for this reason that his true self had sent this instruction.
Though Li Fan did not possess such a technique himself, in the vast Xuanhuang Realm, there were bound to be cultivators who could.
Afterward, the sacred embryo wandered through the Museum of Divine Archives for a long while.
Only when he confirmed that his true self had fully and synchronously mastered the entire Bright Spirit Method of Three Disasters and a Hundred Tribulations did he act as if he hadn't had his fill and finally departed the museum.
The guiding cultivator was still dutifully waiting outside.
He escorted the sacred embryo all the way out of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters before vanishing in a flash.
Sensing the faint, almost imperceptible presence of a cultivator tailing him in secret, Sacred Embryo Li Fan sneered inwardly.
Without the slightest hesitation, he decisively chose to end his own life.
Amid a thunderous roar, his Nascent Soul grotto-heaven abruptly erupted like a blazing sphere of light.
By the time the pursuer realized something was wrong and rushed over, Sacred Embryo Li Fan had already been reduced to flying ash, leaving no trace behind!
The pursuer wore black robes, with the character "Dharma" etched into his forehead.
With a grim expression, he stared up at the sky.
Not a single death vision had appeared to mark a cultivator's fall.
"Elder Zhen was right. It really was an avatar!
"Damn it, who would have thought he'd be so ruthless and cautious, severing the trail completely!
"It seems our only lead now is to investigate that Law-Audience Jade Plaque."
A flash of frustration crossed the black-robed cultivator's eyes, but after scouring the scene repeatedly without turning up anything, he had no choice but to leave in resentment.
***
Within the Spirit Wood Realm.
Li Fan was inside a secret chamber, carefully studying the Bright Spirit Method of Three Disasters and a Hundred Tribulations.
He had already issued an "oracle" through the faceless divine statue, instructing the cultivators of the Myriad Realms Association to find someone capable of reconstructing a person's original living appearance from a skull.
He believed there would be results before long.
"If I can identify who that person was, perhaps I can discover what that Eternal Lingering Thought—the one that holds such great allure for True Reversion—truly is."
Setting that matter aside for the moment, Li Fan focused all his attention on the technique before him.
Because its deduction blueprint had been the Record of the Three Perils, Ghosts, Gods, and the Netherworld, and Li Fan's requirement had been that its manifestation and traits when circulated mirror the original, this Bright Spirit Method of Three Disasters and a Hundred Tribulations was virtually a knockoff version of the Record of the Netherworld.
The Record of the Three Perils, Ghosts, Gods, and the Netherworld involved nurturing countless thoughts within oneself into god-and-ghost-like entities. Each ghost-god could practically be viewed as an independent entity, albeit created by and bound to the host body.
Once the Bright Spirit Method of Three Disasters and a Hundred Tribulations was mastered, countless "ghosts and gods" would likewise dwell within the body.
However, rather than severing one's thoughts into separate entities, they were spiritual thought-constructs honed and cultivated.
Strictly speaking, those ghosts and gods were still parts of Li Fan's consciousness, merely possessing unique, concrete manifestations.
Although its upper limit of power was somewhat lower, there was no danger of losing control.
Instead, by turning stray thoughts into constructs of consciousness, one's Dao heart could be made even purer.
Of course, for Li Fan, who possessed the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation, he had few stray thoughts to begin with.
Thus, to cultivate this technique, Li Fan actually had to deliberately conjure up a great multitude of thoughts.
Half a month later.
Before Li Fan, an aberrant, translucent construct—humanoid yet non-human, with two heads and seven arms—suddenly materialized.
Scrutinizing this thought-construct for a moment, Li Fan felt something wasn't quite right.
Though it was also a thought-construct, it differed substantially from what was produced by the Record of the Three Perils, Ghosts, Gods, and the Netherworld.
After pondering for a long while, Li Fan suddenly had an epiphany.
"My mind is free of worldly distractions, so the thought-constructs I generate are inevitably somewhat too upright and noble.
"They lack the sinister, ghostly pall of the Record of the Netherworld."
Having deduced the reason for the difference, Li Fan soon allowed dark, gloomy thoughts to surface in his mind.
Consequently, the thought-constructs he formed became brimming with malice and wickedness.
Li Fan then followed suit.
Under normal circumstances, generating thought-constructs was not the work of a single day.
One needed to integrate insights drawn from the calamities and tribulations one had experienced, slowly nurturing them over time.
Only through accumulated days and months could one raise an army of thought-constructs.
Yet was Li Fan an ordinary person?
Across his numerous reincarnations, he had experienced far too much.
The divergent historical paths of the Xuanhuang Realm and everything he had witnessed served as fuel for forging these thought-constructs.
He had even witnessed with his own eyes the scene of the Xuanhuang Realm destroyed by a single glance from a True Immortal. The final terror and despair of countless cultivators during that apocalypse allowed some of the thought-constructs Li Fan created to look exceptionally horrific, striking bone-deep dread into anyone who beheld them.
Further bolstered by the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method, his mental fortitude was peerlessly formidable.
In barely a dozen days, a ferocious army of "ghosts and gods," overflowing with wickedness and soaring resentment, took roost within Li Fan's body.
Sensing his own handiwork, even Li Fan couldn't help but frown.
"If I release them with a single thought, it truly will be like the advent of a demonic realm."
With a stir of his mind, Li Fan flashed into an empty space.
It was none other than the reinforced Liangyi Microcosmic Formation used to trap Yan Fangzhou!
At this moment, Yan Fangzhou seemed utterly broken by the inhumane torment.
His eyes were vacant as he sat dumbly on the ground, resembling a walking corpse devoid of all vitality.
Compared to the high-spirited, dashing figure he had cut when he first arrived, the difference was like heaven and earth.
Chapter 944